Spring Training Notes

Most of the talk regarding the Giants this spring has been about Barry Bonds and the teams' new ace Barry Zito, but the guys who are really making the headlines are the three young outfielders who have been tearing the cover off the ball. Two guys who seem to have been in the Giants' system for ever, Todd Linden and Jason Ellison, are finally emerging as two major league level hitters. Ellison leads the team in hitting this spring with a .609 average(14-23), and a team high 9 RBI's and 11 runs. Linden has been almost as hot, going 14-31 with a home run and 7 RBI's. Bruce Bochy said earlier in the spring that he had plans for Todd Linden, hinting that there was going to be room on the 25-man roster for Linden but if Ellison ends the spring hitting around .500, it's going to be extremely tough not to carry that bat north. Another guy who has emerged into the mix is Freddy Lewis. Lewis is the least likely guy to make the team out of the three, but he has broken out this spring with a .300 average and 8 RBI's so far. Lewis is very intriguing, he has the most speed out of any other outfielder on the 40-man roster, and it looks like his power and plate discipline are finally coming around and catching up with his legs. Lewis isn't going to make the team out of spring training unless Linden and Ellison go down before opening day, but he will be one of the first players called upon if the team is down an outfielder.

On the pitching front, it has been a week of mixed results for the Giants. Tim Lincecum showed

his first glimpse of brilliance Sunday going 3 shutout innings, walking none, and striking out 4 Brewers. After the outing, Bochy informed everyone that Lincecum's most likely destination come April is in Fresno as a starting pitcher, which I think is the right move. It's way easier to make the transition from starting pitcher to reliever if the Giants decide to go that route with Lincecum. The same optimism isn't quite there for right now for Matt Morris. He had another horrible outing Monday giving up 7 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits in 2 innings of work raising his spring era to 16.20. I have faith that Morris will rebound from last year and figure it out by April, but I am starting to worry. I know the general consensus is that spring training doesn't matter a whole lot but it would be nice if this guy to put together a few good outings before the season starts. After the year he had last year and the way the spring has gone so far, even a veteran like Matt Morris needs to come out of spring with some good vibes.

Comments

Anonymous said…

I wonder who will close if Benitez does get traded?

4:45 PM

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...

SF Giants' 2024 season preview and predictions

We've reached the finish line of spring training and it's time for the games to start mattering. The Giants are a much different team than the one we saw report to camp six weeks ago. Did they add enough over the winter and spring to catapult them into playoff contention? What are some keys to success this season? We'll get into all that and more in the 2024 season preview. A winter that started out a little slow and concerning for Giants' fans, really came into form in the spring and was capped beautifully by a Blake Snell signing just over a week before opening day. The Giants are indeed a much improved team from the one we saw in 2023, just how much better they become will rely a lot on three big things. Three Keys to 2024 1. Health Of course, you can say this about every team in baseball and in any sport. In order for them to reach their end-season goals, they'll have to have had stayed relatively healthy throughout the summer. But for the Giants I've highl...

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...

The Giants Baseball Blog

Search This Blog